To no one's great surprise Clermont Auvergne made it to the Heineken Cup semi-finals for the second year running, to face the winners of Harlequins and Munster in three weeks. Not that Montpellier made life easy, but when their occasional France fly-half François Trinh-Duc limped off so went their hopes.

In the end it was a five-try hammering and few will bet against Clermont being in Dublin for the May final. Montpellier left for home with a solitary try from Timoci Nagusa as consolation.

With 58 consecutive home wins behind Clermont, no one was giving Montpellier a chance of upsetting a team that in many eyes are heirs apparent to the European throne vacated by Toulouse two seasons ago. For Clermont this was their fifth Heineken quarter final, whereas Montpellier had never made it this far.

In their favour was a run of five Top 14 wins, but word from Clermont ranks all week had been that they had no intention of repeating the mistakes of last season when they went out to Leinster in Bordeaux, squandering a healthy lead with Wesley Fofana butchering a potentially winning try in the final seconds.

Clermont are also four places – and 17 points – ahead in the league while Montpellier were without their influential scrum-half Julien Tomas, still seeing double after running into a man-mountain from Mont-de-Marsan last weekend. Against that Clermont had no Brock James. Ludovic Radosavljevic, a scrum-half who has been at the club for a few years without becoming a household name, stood in at fly-half for a game charged with tension as well as bragging rights in these parts.

There was also the small matter of a "home" semi-final at Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier that may help to explain the manner with which Lee Byrne and Aurélien Rougerie went about their work until Wayne Barnes asked the Clermont captain to take a little heat out of the battle. Some chance.

Mr Barnes was talking to Rougerie for a second time within 15 minutes and by then Clermont were six points down and on the back foot. The hooker Benjamin Kayser was caught obstructing and Morgan Parra ruled to have knocked on, and the stand-in scrum-half Benoît Paillaugue landed both penalties before Parra replied with one of his own. There was also the matter of Clermont's star front row – there was another among the thicket of internationals on the bench – being shoved off their own ball and Paillaugue kicked a third before the Clermont attack stuttered belatedly into life.

Until then Trinh-Duc had been playing with the authority he is rarely allowed with France, but when the fly-half limped off, to be replaced by Pierre Berard,, normally a wing, everything started to go wrong. Gerhard Vosloo, who looks and plays like Jean-Pierre Rives, ran a penalty, which Parra somehow managed to keep alive before the scrum-half spotted both Wesley Fofana and Napolioni Nalaga free on the left. A chip did the rest and the relief among the packed crowd was palpable and soon to swing to delight when Rougerie ran in a second four minutes later.

Again Vosloo, a South African flanker who has been playing in France for seven years, had his say, but the plaudits went to another imported favourite Sitiveni Sivivatu: the former All Black wingskipped through three tackles before floating the scoring pass to his captain. From under the posts Parra converted and 3-9 had become 15-9 at half-time.

Thirteen minutes into the second half the Kiwi got one of his own. Nalaga made the first dent, the wing sending three shuddering before Sivivatu stepped his way 65 metres upfield, sidestepping three opponents before diving over under the posts. The locals were still cheering as Parra landed the conversion and that was effectively the game.

Not that Montpellier surrendered. In fact the 10 minutes following Sivivatu's try were on a level with their fire in the first quarter, only this time Clermont had discipline and resources. While Montpellier were making do with the inside centre Santiago Fernández at fly-half, Clermont had the luxury of the international David Skrela to replace Radosavljevic for the final 33 minutes and it was no surprise when they benefited from a little middlefield confusion. This time Byrne, reputed to be leaving in the summer, profited from a series of exchanges that left Montpellier overstretched and vulnerable. By now the Yelow Army was in full voice and Byrne came within a finger tip of putting Fofana in for a fifth, before Nalaga really rubbed it in, put away by the industrious Vosloo, who must have run Sivivatu close as man of the match.